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October, 2014 - Week 1
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Mass grave found in search for missing students in Mexico
Authorities have found mass graves with the charred remains of up to 20 people in the restive southern Mexican state of Guerrero.
It comes as police searched the area for nearly four dozen missing students.
The identities of the dead were not immediately clear, officials said.
Forty-three students disappeared last weekend after Iguala municipal officers shot at buses that the group had seized to return home near the state capital, Chilpancingo.
Three students were killed. Another three people died when police and suspected gang members shot at another bus carrying football players on the outskirts of town.
Witnesses said that the officers took away several students in patrol cars after last week's shooting.
The officers are suspected of having links to criminal gangs, which had raised fears about the students' fate in a country where drug cartels often bury their victims in mass graves.
The remains were found in six fresh graves on a hillside on the outskirts of the town of Iguala, a local official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Iguala is almost 200km south of Mexico City in the increasingly violent state of Guerrero.
Twenty-two police officers were arrested in Guerrero, accused of killing two students during the clashes last week.
Guerrero Governor Angel Aguirre said yesterday that a total of 30 individuals have now been detained in connection with the incidents.
Several hundred students protested last night in front of Aguirre's residence in the state capital of Chilpancingo, expressing anger that some of their classmates may be among the bodies found in the graves.
A car was overturned and several petrol bombs were hurled at the residence perimeter, where security outposts were lightly damaged.
Guerrero Attorney General Inaky Blanco told reporters in Iguala that the remains would be sent to Mexico's forensic service to determine whether or not the corpses were those of the missing students.
He declined to say how many graves or corpses had been found.
"In the next few hours we will determine the cause of death and the number of bodies," a spokesman for the state attorney general's office said.
http://www.rte.ie/news/2014/1005/650118-mexico-mass-grave/
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Navy puts autonomous ‘swarmboats' into action
by Kevin McCaney
Navy researchers have achieved a breakthrough in autonomous technology, developing a “swarming” system that employs multiple unmanned boats working together to escort ships, patrol harbors or confront adversaries.
Developed by the Office of Naval Research, the Control Architecture for Robotic Agent Command and Sensing, or CARACaS, system can, for the cost of several thousand dollars, turn just about any boat into an unmanned vessel, according to Rear Adm. Matthew L. Klunder, chief of Naval Research.
During a two-week demonstration in August, as many as 13 patrol boats and other vehicles outfitted with the CARACaS sensor and software kit worked in concert—either autonomously or by remote—on the James River in Virginia, escorting a high-value vessel (in this case, the researchers' ship, the Relentless), which is and then surrounding a mock enemy ship when it appeared. Although the purpose was to demonstrate the boats' ability to swarm, boats operated by remote could have fired on the intruding ship as well, Klunder said during a recent conference call with reporters.
The Navy sees a lot of advantages in having “swarmboats.” They're cheaper than manned boats, and in addition to keeping sailors out of harm's way, they keep sailors who otherwise would be sent out on patrol from being pulled away from their assigned jobs aboard ship. And the kits can take advantage of smaller boats already aboard cruisers, destroyer and carriers, without the need to buy new vessels.
“We think this is extremely effective and extremely affordable,” Klunder said. Boats can be outfitted with payloads ranging from non-lethal to lethal, and while the James River demonstration involved 13 boats, he said as many as 20 or 30 could be deployed as a unit, controlled by a single operator.
http://defensesystems.com/articles/2014/10/05/onr-navy-autonomous-swarm-boats.aspx?admgarea=DS
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From the FBI
National Cyber Security Awareness Month - Security is Everyone's Responsibility
10/02/14
Every October since 2004, National Cyber Security Awareness Month—administered by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)—reminds us of the importance of protecting not only our individual identities, finances, and privacy but also our country's national security, critical infrastructure, and economy. Cyber security is a responsibility shared by all—the public sector, the private sector, and the general public.
Individually, Americans should ensure the security of their own computers and other electronic devices. You don't want criminals accessing your bank accounts online. You don't want to become part of a criminal botnet responsible for stealing millions of dollars. You don't want to unknowingly infect your company's computer network with a damaging virus.
So how can you protect against those scenarios? Here are a few tips:
• Make sure you've got updated antivirus software installed;
• Enable automated patches for your operating system;
• Don't open e-mail attachments or click on URLs in unsolicited e-mails;
• Use strong passwords, and don't use the same one or two passwords for everything; and
• Avoid putting out personally identifiable information on social media platforms.
In other words, make it as difficult as possible for criminals and others to use your digital technology against you, against other innocent victims, and against our nation as a whole.
Agencies across the U.S. government, including the FBI, are making cyber security a top priority as well.
Within the Bureau, we prioritize high-level intrusions by the biggest and most dangerous botnets, state-sponsored hackers, and global cyber syndicates. Collaborating with our partners—including DHS, the intelligence community, law enforcement at all levels, and the private sector—we strive to predict and prevent these kinds of intrusions, not just investigate them after the fact.
Our legal attaché offices coordinate international investigations and address jurisdictional hurdles and differences in the law from country to country, supporting and collaborating with newly established cyber crime centers at Interpol and Europol.
We work side by side with our federal, state, and local partners on cyber task forces in each of our 56 field offices and at the National Cyber Investigative Joint Task Force.
We also exchange information about cyber threats with the private sector through partnerships such as the Domestic Security Alliance Council, InfraGard, and the National Cyber Forensic and Training Alliance.
So do all these partnerships make a difference? Here are some recent case examples that clearly demonstrate the value of collaboration:
• In August 2014, a Chinese national was indicted on charges stemming from a computer hacking scheme that involved the theft of trade secrets from American defense contractors. Details
• In June 2014, a multinational effort disrupted the GameOver Zeus botnet, believed to have been responsible for the theft of millions of dollars from business and consumers in the U.S. and abroad. Details
• In May 2014, five hackers—members of China's People's Liberation Army—were indicted on charges of illegally penetrating the networks of six U.S. companies and stealing proprietary information, including trade secrets. Details
• Also in May 2014, the co-developers of a particularly insidious malware known as Blackshades—which is believed to have infected more than half a million computers around the world—were indicted. Details
Stay tuned to our website during the month of October for more information on cyber security, cyber threats, investigative activities, and wanted cyber fugitives.
Resources:
- DHS National Cyber Security Awareness Month website
- More on the FBI's cyber crime efforts
http://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2014/october/national-cyber-security-awareness-month/national-cyber-security-awareness-month
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Help Us Catch the AK-47 Bandit
Violent Bank Robber Shot a Police Officer
09/30/14
During what authorities believe was his first bank robbery nearly three years ago in Chino, California, the AK-47 Bandit—so named because he carries an assault rifle during takeover-style robberies—shot and seriously wounded a police officer while making his escape. Since then, he has robbed or attempted to rob five more banks, most recently in August, when he hit a rural bank in Nebraska.
“He has shown he is not afraid to shoot someone, and experience tells us he is not going to stop robbing banks until we catch him,” said Special Agent Kevin Boles, who is working the case out of our Los Angeles Field Office. “We feel like we are racing the clock on this guy,” Boles said. “If we don't get him soon, things could end badly and someone else might get hurt.”
That's why we are asking for the public's help and renewing our publicity campaign regarding this violent criminal. There is a reward of up to $100,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the AK-47 Bandit.
Here is what we know:
• He is a white male, approximately 25 to 40 years old, about 6 feet tall, with light-colored eyes and a stocky build.
• During robberies he wears a dark balaclava ski mask, body armor, and black gloves.
• He carries an AK-47 assault rifle with a drum magazine.
• In several of the robberies, his getaway car was a dark gray four-door Nissan Maxima with chrome accents, model year 2009-2011.
• The robberies occurred on:
February 29, 2012, in Chino (California Bank & Trust);
March 12, 2012, in Vacaville, California (Bank of the West);
July 6, 2012, in North Bend, Washington (Chase Bank);
November 7, 2012, in Rexburg, Idaho (East Idaho Credit Union);
and August 22, 2014, in Nebraska City, Nebraska (First Nebraska Bank).
There was also an attempted robbery on March 9, 2012, in Sacramento, California, at the Tri-Cities Bank.
Police believe the variety of surveillance video from the robberies— and a voice recording —may help the public identify this criminal. “We truly believe that someone knows this suspect, whether they are familiar with his physique, his voice, his vehicle, or even some of the apparel he's wearing during the robberies,” said Bill Lewis, assistant director in charge of our Los Angeles Field Office during a 2013 press conference announcing the reward offer. “We are hoping citizens will take notice, look a little closer, and think a little harder about whether they have information that could break this case.”
Anyone with information about the AK-47 Bandit's identity or whereabouts is urged to contact investigators at the toll-free number 1-800-CALL-FBI or send an e-mail to bandit@chinopd.org. Information can be provided confidentially.
Bank surveillance photographs of the vehicle and the suspect can be found at the Chino Police Department's website: http://www.chinopd.org. Additional bank surveillance photos and videos can be found on the FBI's wanted poster.
Billboard advertising has also been donated to assist with the publicity campaign. Digital ads, including bank surveillance images, the reward offer, and the toll-free number, are running in the Los Angeles region and other areas where robberies occurred. The FBI's social media channels are helping to publicize the case as well.
“This guy attempted to murder a police officer,” Boles said. “There is no telling what he is capable of. We need to get him off the streets for everyone's safety.”
http://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2014/september/help-us-catch-the-ak-47-bandit/help-us-catch-the-ak-47-bandit
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Texas
Officials say as many as 100 had contact with Ebola patient; four have been quarantined
by Mark Berman
Public health officials in Texas said Thursday that as many as 100 people may have had contact with the Liberian man diagnosed with Ebola. Four of these people, at least some of whom are believed to be family members of the man, have been ordered to remain at home in an attempt to prevent the spread of the disease.
Still, authorities continued to stress that only Thomas Eric Duncan, who is the first person diagnosed with Ebola in the United States, had exhibited any Ebola symptoms.
“The only person who's had symptoms is Mr. Duncan, who's in the hospital,” Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins said during a news conference Thursday afternoon. “And no one who has been around Mr. Duncan in the time he has been symptomatic has shown any indication of having contracted Ebola.”
It is unclear how many people had direct contact with Duncan, who flew on commercial flights to Dallas from Liberia last month. Authorities say the number of people who require monitoring will be much lower once that is determined.
Some students have not returned to the schools attended by five students who are believed to have had contact with Duncan, the school district reported. Attendance is down at these campuses, even as nurses have begun regularly visiting classrooms and counselors have been made available for students.
Liberian authorities said Thursday they plan to prosecute Duncan for lying on an airport questionnaire, because he said he had not cared for an Ebola patient or touched anyone who had died from the disease, according to the Associated Press.
Before leaving Liberia, Duncan had his temperature taken at the airport in Monrovia by a person who had been trained by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A thermometer approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration showed he did not have a fever.
The screening at the airport in Monrovia, the capital, has been in place for months, Deborah R. Malac, the U.S. ambassador to Liberia, said in a telephone interview Thursday.
“They have confidence that everything that was supposed to have been done was done,” Malac said.
An immigration expert and critic of the Obama administration's immigration policies said Thursday that Duncan should not have been issued a visitor's visa because he presented a high risk of remaining in the country illegally. She called on Washington to follow the example of several African countries, which have recently banned all visitors from Liberia and other countries affected by the outbreak of the Ebola virus.
Jessica Vaughn, a researcher affiliated with the nonprofit Center for Immigration Studies in Washington, said U.S. officials had made one “mistake” by issuing Duncan a visa last year and a second error by allowing him to enter the country.
“If you look at his circumstances, it should have been really tough for him to qualify for a visa,” Vaughn said. She noted that Duncan reportedly was jobless, living away from his home country and had a number of relatives in the U.S. — all factors that often indicate a person is unlikely to return home after their visa expires. “He clearly appears unqualified.”
Other immigration experts disagreed with this assessment and the suggestion of a travel ban, saying the current U.S. visa screening process has been made extremely rigorous in the past decade and that international health agencies oppose shutting down travel to and from the Ebola-stricken region.
Doris Meissner, who headed the federal immigration agency in the 1990s and is now a senior fellow at the Migration Policy Institute in Washington, argued against banning travel from the region. She noted that the World Health Organization and other health agencies have said that closing borders and banning travel can be counterproductive because they “weaken the ability to mobilize and respond” to a health crisis.
Additional screening protocols have been added since the beginning of the Ebola outbreak, which has killed more than 3,300 people in West Africa, according to the World Health Organization.
Duncan began showing symptoms about four or five days after arriving, said Thomas Friden, director of the CDC. He visited Texas Health Presbyterian in Dallas shortly thereafter for medical treatment because he had a fever and some abdominal pain, telling a nurse that he had traveled from Liberia, but that information was not relayed to the other health care workers and he was released.
“This is a very sophisticated hospital,” said David Lakey, commissioner of the Texas Department of State Health Services, during the same conference call. “They've done a lot of education related to preparedness for Ebola…Unfortunately, connections weren't made related to travel history and symptoms.”
As a result, Duncan left the hospital during the period when health officials say he was symptomatic, which is the only time Ebola becomes contagious. A little more than two days later, he returned to the same hospital in an ambulance and was placed in isolation after being recognized as a potential Ebola patient. He vomited outside an apartment complex as he was being taken into the ambulance, Reuters reported.
Duncan's nephew told NBC News that he had to call the CDC himself to report the possible Ebola infection on Sunday. Frieden said the CDC was not aware of such a contact, but said they were looking into it.
The CDC says the list of 100 people being assessed includes “potential, possible contacts.” Many, but not all, of these people had been interviewed by Thursday, Thomas Frieden, director of the CDC, said in a conference call with reporters. The CDC has a team of 10 people, including five “disease detectives,” on the ground in Texas to help with the response and identify anyone who may have come into contact with Duncan.
Four of the people on this list, at least two of whom are relatives of Duncan's, have been ordered by state and county health officials to remain home until at least Oct. 19, with a local law enforcement officer stationed there to enforce this order. The order, which was delivered by local health officials on Wednesday night, says that they cannot have visitors without approval, has to provide blood samples and must agree to any testing.
While authorities seemed reluctant to go into detail about why these four people were quarantined, they said it had to do with making sure they remained at home and accessible for monitoring.
“They were non-compliant with the request to stay home,” Jenkins said. “I don't want to go too far beyond that.”
Jenkins said that while the order was unusual, it was necessary in this case, adding that it was important not to have “people leaving the premises on a regular basis” against the wishes of authorities.
“We do not intend to have to do that again,” he said. “But there's nothing more important than keeping you safe.”
People who have come into direct contact with an Ebola patient who has symptoms must be watched for three weeks, beginning on the last day they had that contact. This process, which is called contact tracing, involves observing them for symptoms such as a high fever, at which point a person will be isolated.
“These individuals do not have any symptoms,” Lakey said. “At this time, they are healthy. There's no risk they have spread disease to any other individual.”
But he later said, “The information I was given, I couldn't be confident that that monitoring was going to take place the way I needed it to take place.”
There are also issues of hygiene at this apartment, including properly disposing of the sheets on which Duncan slept and his belongings. The home had not been cleaned by Thursday afternoon, as there has “been a little bit of hesitancy” in finding someone willing to do it, Lakey said.
The sheets and Duncan's belongings have been placed into a sealed plastic bag, and they will be disposed of by a contractor who agreed to clean the home and who has worked with hospitals on medical clean-ups before, Jenkins said.
Three other people who came into contact with Johnson are the Dallas Fire Rescue crew members who took Duncan to the hospital. They are going to remain home and will be checked for symptoms over the same three-week period.
If another case of Ebola does occur in the Dallas area, emergency rooms in the county are prepared to handle it, said Zachary Thompson, director of Dallas County Health and Human Services.
“The plain truth is, we can't make the risk zero until the outbreak is controlled in West Africa,” Frieden said. “What we can do is minimize that risk, as is being done now in Dallas.”
President Obama called Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings to discuss the response the Ebola case and pledged and reiterated his confidence in America's doctors and national health infrastructure to handle this case safely and effectively, according to White House spokesman Eric Schultz.
Duncan flew on two commercial planes that landed at two of the busiest airports in the U.S. on Sept. 20. He boarded a United Airlines flight from Brussels to Dulles International Airport before changing planes to board another United flight to Dallas-Fort Worth. But authorities said this posed no danger to his fellow travelers or anyone who later boarded those planes, because he was not symptomatic and therefore not contagious.
As they have since Duncan was diagnosed Tuesday, public health officials assured the public that they could contain the virus.
“The bottom line here is that we remain confident that we can contain any spread of Ebola in the United States,” Frieden said. “There could be additional cases who are already exposed. If that occurs, systems are in place.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2014/10/02/officials-say-as-many-as-100-had-contact-with-ebola-patient-four-have-been-quarantined/
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New York
American cameraman working for NBC in Liberia tests positive for Ebola virus
by DAVID BAUDER
NEW YORK — An American cameraman helping to cover the Ebola outbreak in Liberia for NBC News has tested positive for the virus and will be flown back to the United States for treatment.
NBC News President Deborah Turness said Thursday the rest of the NBC News crew including medical correspondent Dr. Nancy Snyderman will be flown back to the U.S. and placed in quarantine for 21 days "in an abundance of caution."
NBC identified the freelance cameraman on its website as 33-year-old Ashoka Mukpo. He has been working in Liberia for three years for Vice News and other media outlets, and has been covering the Ebola epidemic, according to the network. He began shooting for NBC on Tuesday.
He began feeling tired and achy Wednesday and discovered he had a slight fever. He went to a treatment center Thursday to be tested, and is being kept there, said Snyderman, who was interviewed Thursday night on "The Rachel Maddow Show" on MSNBC.
Snyderman said she believes Mukpo's exposure to the virus happened sometime before he started working with the NBC crew, since it is usually eight to 10 days before the first symptoms are seen.
"The good news is this young man, our colleague, was admitted to the clinic very, very early," she said. "I spoke with him today. He's in good spirits. He's ready to get home — of course, appropriately concerned. But he will be airlifted out soon."
She said that neither she nor the other three NBC employees has shown any symptoms or warning signs of Ebola infection.
"We observe the custom now, which is to not shake hands, to not embrace people, to wash our hands with diluted bleach water before we enter the hotel," she said. "We dip our feet in bleach solution."
She said she and the rest of her crew present little chance of giving it to anyone, unless they get sick.
"We will be taking our temperatures twice a day, checking in with each other, and if any one of us suddenly spikes a fever or gets symptoms, we will report ourselves to the authorities," she said. "We are taking it seriously."
http://www.startribune.com/lifestyle/health/277969171.html
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California
JP Morgan reveals data breach affected 76 million households
by Elizabeth Weise
SAN FRANCISCO — The cyberattack on JPMorgan Chase & Co., first announced in July, compromised information from 76 million households and 7 million small businesses, the company revealed Thursday in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Contact information, including name, address, phone number and e-mail address, as well as internal JPMorgan Chase information about the users, was compromised, the filing said. However the bank said no customer money appears to have been stolen.
JPMorgan said "there is no evidence that account information for such affected customers — account numbers, passwords, user IDs, dates of birth or Social Security numbers — was compromised during this attack."
The attack is one of the largest corporate breaches thus far reported.
More chillingly, a report Thursday in The New York Times said that the hackers were able to gain "the highest level of administrative privilege" on more than 90 of the bank's servers, according to people the newspaper spoke with who were familiar with the forensic investigation of the breach.
That means they "had root" on the servers of one of the largest banks in the world — they "could transfer funds, disclose information, close accounts, and basically do whatever they want to the data," said Jeff Williams, chief technology officer with Contrast Security in Palo Alto, Calif.
In its SEC filing, JPMorgan said as of Oct. 2 it had not "seen any unusual customer fraud related to this incident."
"This is a truly remarkable attack, but not just in its scope — hackers successfully penetrated one of the most secure organizations on this planet and they stole absolutely nothing of value — no money, no Social Security numbers, no passwords," said John Gunn, with Vasco Data Security International in Chicago.
"Persistence like that, with no stolen money, is due to a future planned operation — or that the objective was to identify data that was material in some other aspect," said J.J. Thompson of Rook Security in Indianapolis.
"This could be to track down a person of interest by observing financial transaction locations, to plans future large scale disruption when they know their competitor plans to wire funds to close a deal, or any other odd scenario you could see on (the TV show) 'Blacklist,'" he said.
JPM shares were down 0.89% in after-hours trading.
Whether there really was an attack or not, consumers should beware of "piggyback attacks" in which criminals launch social engineering attacks making use of customer anxiety after reports of a big-name breach.
"The usual advice applies: If you get an e-mail or a call from a JP Morgan rep, feel free to thank them for contacting you and hang up. Customers should always initiate that contact by looking at their credit card or statement for the contact number; you simply can't trust that an incoming call or e-mail is legitimate and not a phishing attempt," said Tod Beardsley, engineering manager with security firm Rapid7.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2014/10/02/jp-morgan-security-breach/16590689/
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Missouri
Protesters arrested outside police station in Ferguson overnight
The demonstrators refused to stop chanting late Thursday night and at least six were reportedly taken into custody. Meanwhile, a Missouri woman, whose tweet sparked a misconduct investigation into whether a grand jury had leaked confidential information, claims her account was 'probably hacked.'
by Michael Walsh
Cops arrested several people during another night of protests outside a police station in suburban Saint Louis, an official said Friday morning.
Demonstrations have taken place nearly every night in Ferguson since Officer Darren Wilson fatally shot Michael Brown, an unarmed African American teenager, on Aug. 9.
The official for the Ferguson Police Department declined to give an exact number but the Washington Post reported that at least six people were taken into custody after breaking a late-night noise ordinance.
They chanted outside the station while holding their hands in the air just as Brown, according to several witnesses, had his hands in the air when he was shot. When police told them to pipe down, the group only got louder.
Some of the protesters are affiliated with a group called the Millennials, according to the Washington broadsheet.
Meanwhile, a grand jury is considering whether to press charges against Wilson. A Missouri woman, Susan Nicholas, landed in hot water earlier this week when it looked as if someone on the jury told her confidential information about the proceedings.
Someone tweeted this supposed information from her Twitter account Wednesday.
"I know someone sitting on the grand jury of this case," the tweet reads. "There isn't enough at this point to warrant an arrest. #Ferguson."
This tweet led to misconduct investigation.
Nicholas told CNN that she was "probably hacked," has not used Twitter in months and thought she had deleted her account.
"I didn't care for it because I just don't get the whole Twitter thing," she said.
In the past, Nicholas said, someone had hacked into her account and posted spam.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/cops-arrest-protestors-police-station-ferguson-overnight-article-1.1962004
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Pennsylvania
Chambersburg moves away from SWAT team and towards community policing
by Ben Allen
Simply put, Chambersburg's Mayor Darren Brown wants police officers to get out of their cars and walk around downtown. The proposal comes nearly a month after the borough scrapped its SWAT team, and the four-part plan promotes what officers call community policing.
If approved by the end of the year, it would establish a satellite police station in the southern part of the borough, and re-direct money towards a part-time officer to patrol on foot. Police officers would also teach a class on teen driving at Chambersburg's high school, and the "crime impact team" would be re-established.
Brown says his strategy will be more effective than a SWAT team.
"They're out there every day, talking to people, which actually helps with investigations because a lot of times people might be scared to tell about the activities that they see going on in their community," he says.
Brown says in the past, an officer would walk downtown three days a week for four hours at a time.
The cost would be minimal, says Brown, because money would just be redirected from other areas of the budget.
"It's just difference of opinions as to what are the concern areas and what would keep the town safer. And that's sort of where I differentiate from my predecessor. He believed that the SWAT team would keep the town safer," adds Brown.
The new strategy could go into effect as early as January, when a new budget year starts.
Some studies have suggested crime decreases slightly under a "community policing" approach.
But the largest impact is on the perception of the police department.
Brown says the community's opinion will determine how he judges the new program.
http://www.witf.org/news/2014/10/chambersburg-moves-away-from-swat-team-and-towards-community-policing.php
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Indiana
New counseling service for public safety workers
by Jessica Hayes
INDIANAPOLIS – Starting Friday, new help is available for police officers and other public safety workers who need help coping with the difficulties of their job.
Six area hospitals, including Community and IU Health, will begin offering confidential counseling for police and safety personnel in high stress jobs where other peoples' lives or their own safety is at risk.
The Department of Public Safety says assistance is available for a number of issues: grief and stress; family or personal relationships; parenting; depression and anxiety; alcohol and drug abuse.
This counseling comes at a time when the Fraternal Order of Police and IMPD police chief say the department is hundreds of officers short.
Officers are also dealing with the loss of three fellow IMPD officers since 2011: David Moore, Rod Bradway and Perry Renn.
One recent study found that police officers have one of the highest stress jobs.
Research from the University of Minnesota also found that daily stress can lead to emotional problems: the constant danger, dealing with a sometimes hostile public, working odd hours and the responsibility for protecting and saving lives.
The Department of Public Safety and representatives from the hospitals involved will make the official announcement Friday at 10 a.m. at Old City Hall downtown.
http://wishtv.com/2014/10/03/new-counseling-service-for-public-safety-workers/
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Minnesota
Surge in Minnesota drug overdose deaths worries health, public safety officials
by KEVIN GILES
Overdose deaths in Minnesota from prescription painkillers and heroin have soared to a level that now exceeds deaths from motor vehicle accidents, new numbers from the state Department of Health show.
The trend has both alarmed and frustrated local law enforcement officials, who say they're seeing no end to arrests and prosecutions resulting from highly addictive opiates circulating in the underground market.
“It's heartbreaking for families and the community and for me,” said Washington County Attorney Pete Orput, whose office over the past two years has prosecuted 12 cases related to drug overdose deaths. “I sometimes feel like I'm losing that war, but I'm not sure what else to do other than to try to raise the awareness in the communities of the dangers of this.
“I think we need to scream about it, not just talk about it.”
In 2013, the Health Department reported, 507 Minnesotans died of all types of drug overdoses including 329 in the 11-county metro area. Deaths from prescribed pain relievers — and illegal heroin, a close cousin in the opiate family — accounted for many of them. By comparison, 374 Minnesotans died in motor vehicle accidents.
The Minnesota findings mirror a national study, released Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that confirm widespread public exposure to prescription drugs and increasing rates of opiate addiction.
Heroin deaths have increased sharply in many states, the CDC said, but nearly twice as many people died from prescription drug overdoses as from heroin. In Minnesota, 200 people died from overdosing on prescribed pain relievers in 2013; 91 died from overdosing on heroin.
The CDC study of 2012 deaths, published in this week's “Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report,” also concluded that while most prescription drug abusers don't become heroin users, “heroin often costs less than prescription [drugs] and is increasingly available.”
Minnesota was one of 28 states studied.
The Minnesota Health Department findings showed that since 2000, nearly 5,000 people statewide have died from overdoses.
Many of those drug deaths involved accidental poisonings and suicides, but a growing number of cases were prosecuted as third-degree murder after investigators found that the sale of a drug led to an overdose death.
That was the case in Washington County this winter when Emily Frye, of Oakdale, was convicted and sent to prison for seven years for selling 23 methadone pills to a Scandia man who overdosed and died.
Hennepin County recorded the most overdose deaths — nearly 1,400 in 14 years and 143 last year alone. Ramsey County has recorded 693 drug deaths since 2000, followed by Anoka County with 344, Dakota County with 322 and Washington County with 183.
In Hennepin County, prosecutors have charged seven people in the past 32 months with third-degree murder in overdose deaths.
“Putting the pieces together is hard,” Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman said Thursday. “We have more cases now than we've ever had before. Lots of times it's not an easy crime to prove.”
Fighting back
At the state Department of Health's Injury and Violence Prevention Unit, epidemiologist supervisor Jon Roesler described the rash of drug deaths as difficult to predict and control because people abuse so many drugs for so many reasons.
“People are using what's available and what's cheap,” he said. “We deal with it in one place and it pops up in another.”
http://www.startribune.com/lifestyle/health/277974231.html
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Maryland
The Bulletproof Classroom: Armored Whiteboards Defend Against School Shootings
by John Cloud
(Video on site)
After the atrocity in Newtown, Conn., in December 2012, when 20-year-old Adam Lanza killed 20 six- and seven-year-olds and six adult staffers at Sandy Hook Elementary, legislators around the country grasped for ways to prevent another such disaster. Some proposed arming school guards; others moved to ban guns from being kept at school by anyone. Debates raged over spending on metal detectors, more surveillance, combat training for teachers, and blastproof locks on classroom doors. In the wake of every school shooting since the 1999 Columbine massacre, these discussions have been endless because the stakes are so high and the solutions so imperfect. Lock every door, and the gunman can still shoot through a window. Arm the principal with a gun, and the shooter might disarm her, kill her, and gain another weapon.
A businessman named George Tunis III read about Sandy Hook with horror. He has two kids—a 15-year-old girl and a 13-year-old boy—and couldn't imagine getting a call from their school that the worst had happened. Millions of parents have shared his fear, but Tunis is in a unique position to do something about it: He manufactures light armor designed to protect people from not only bullets, but also bombs.
His company, Hardwire, was one of the principal contractors armoring vehicles and buildings during the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. From a modest red-brick building hard upon the Pocomoke River on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, Tunis, ebullient and surprisingly easygoing for a man in the war business, shipped enough armor for 126 military vehicles a week during the mid-2000s. (He estimates Hardwire armored 5,000 vehicles in all.) If he could make light armor tough enough to protect service members from an improvised explosive device, surely he could make something teachers could use to protect kids from the next Adam Lanza.
Tunis came up with the idea of lining the handheld, portable whiteboards commonly used in schools with panels made from Dyneema, a polyethylene fiber strong enough to stop a shotgun blast from a foot away and light enough to wear all day. Emily Heinauer, director of special projects for Hardwire, says the company has sold its 20-by-18-inch whiteboards in all 50 states—some to school districts and some to individual teachers who find them online. In addition to the bulletproof whiteboards, Tunis makes a 10-by-13-inch clipboard weighing 1.3 pounds intended for kids to use if a gunman comes into the room. Hardwire recently sold 61 clipboards, which retail for $129, at half price to Worcester County, Md., where the company is based. Many of the first orders came from nearby clients—the University of Maryland Eastern Shore spent $60,000 on whiteboards last year. And after the Today show featured them on the 12th anniversary of Sept. 11, orders began pouring in from all over the country.
According to the Department of Education, the U.S. has a pool of more than $95 million in grants intended to help states develop emergency plans for schools. The money has helped spur a range of products that purport to help school districts defend themselves against mass shootings. Along with Hardwire, at least seven other companies are trying to win government money by armoring schools. ProTecht, based in Edmond, Okla., sells blankets that the company claims can “resist” bullets and projectiles thrown by tornadoes. BulletBlocker of Danvers, Mass., sells backpack armor, though many kids don't have quick access to their backpacks during class. Fighting Chance Solutions of Muscatine, Iowa, sells $65 sleeves that encase and disable the closing mechanisms at the top of doors in many public buildings. The sleeves make the doors virtually impossible to open. Strangest of all, Armour Wear, based in Miami, makes bulletproof underwear ($349 for three pairs). Chief Executive Officer Robert Scott says he got the idea after watching his son's peewee football team change their clothes after a game.
Such odd inspirations are bound to come up when fear rises and money is thrown at the problem. They also raise questions: If we aren't going to militarize our schools with armed guards and combat-trained teachers—the offensive solution—are we ready for antiballistic armor in every classroom, perhaps in every kid's backpack—a defensive solution, but one that still makes schools seem like war zones? Introducing military-grade equipment into schools could become a virtual invitation for sociopathic adolescents to show up with their weaponry and try to beat the system, like the next level of a first-person shooter video game. Whiteboards and clipboards may seem like small obstructions for determined killers like Lanza and so many others.
Tunis heatedly answers: “We have an incredible national asset here that we can put to work on an incredible national problem. And for me, one child, one police officer—if even one is saved, we have made a difference.” He knows that when bullets start flying, perfection is impossible.
The contemporary age of school shootings arguably began on Feb. 19, 1997. Evan Ramsey, 16, was a junior at Bethel Regional High in Bethel, Alaska. Ramsey had endured a dreadful childhood: His father had been imprisoned; his mother drank a lot. In court, Ramsey said he'd been sexually abused at a foster home. He and at least two friends talked about his going to school to “scare everybody?…?and kill myself,” as journalist Steve Fainaru later wrote in a three-part Boston Globe series about the Bethel killings. But one of Ramsey's friends, only 14, disagreed. He and another boy urged Ramsey to kill. “He said I'll become famous,” Ramsey later told Fainaru. “He said I should live the fame.”
A reluctant killer, Ramsey managed to slay the principal and a sophomore and wound two others, but he quickly surrendered his Mossberg 500 shotgun. He was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to 210 years in prison. Ramsey's two accomplices were charged with first-degree murder, but as juveniles. They ended up with far milder punishments.
Bethel is crucial to understanding the phenomena of school shootings because it was followed by dozens of incidents in which students seemed to learn from it. They planned their attacks more carefully and assured themselves they weren't afraid to die. Columbine is the most famous, but even after Columbine, schools had little idea how to protect themselves from boys with nothing to lose. Two counties away from Bethel, in Valdez, educators and law enforcement officials have been collecting ideas for years from cops, criminologists, policymakers, and engineers such as Tunis to come up with a comprehensive plan.
William Comer became Valdez's police chief in 2005. He has a goatee and a seemingly imperturbable manner. After high school in tiny Pateros, Wash., Comer worked in construction in Juneau and eventually in Valdez. In 1985 he went to the state trooper academy in Sitka. Afterward, he joined the Valdez police.
When Ramsey shot the four in Bethel, Comer and others on the force began wondering what they would do in the same situation. Even after Comer spoke with a couple of officers who'd been on the scene in Bethel, he had no good answers. “We had nothing in terms of training for years,” he says. “The idea was, ‘Just get [to the school] faster.'?”
After Columbine, Comer and thousands of other cops went to Quantico, Va., for FBI training in how to stop gunmen. The prevailing strategy at the time was that if school officials heard gunfire—and it's important to understand that upstairs and 10 classes away, a gunshot can sound like some kid dropping his books—they were simply trained to “lock down” the classrooms and the whole school.
In classrooms, lockdown meant turning the lights off and asking kids to hide silently. If the teacher could lock the door, he would—although several have died trying to hold doors that the shooters blasted through. During the 2007 massacre at Virginia Tech, an engineering professor named Liviu Librescu, a 76-year-old Holocaust survivor, braced his entire body against the door and screamed for students to jump from the second-story windows. Ten did; because of the bushes and grass, only six were injured, none fatally. The gunman, Seung Hui Cho, shot his way through the door and through Librescu, who was posthumously awarded the Grand Cross of Romania, his native country. Only one of his students died. Cho killed 32 in all.
The Virginia Tech shooting made educators reconsider the lockdown response. It wasn't completely disregarded but became part of a larger group of strategies. The most widely respected standard of practice in school safety is the one developed by the Alice Training Institute in Medina, Ohio, which is privately held. Alice stands for “alert” others quickly; “lock down” your classrooms—with barricades including desks and bookcases or whatever is there; “inform” cops or the principal—or, really, anyone—where you think the shooter is; “counter” his actions by not hiding under desks but throwing books or cans or potted plants when he arrives; and, if you have the opportunity, “evacuate.”
Alice is a radical departure from lockdown, since it asks students to defend themselves—and thereby puts some in harm's way. Critics argue that minors should never be asked to take such dangerous actions. Last year the National Rifle Association issued a report saying every U.S. school should have at least one armed and well-trained official on campus. But Comer and many other law enforcers say that such an approach would do little to reduce schools' vulnerability. Most of the guards will never use weapons during a live incident; they stand around for years with little to do; they're expensive and are the first target of any school shooter. Most school shooters come to kill and die. According to this line of thinking, it's almost impossible to deter an adolescent killer with access to automatic guns from killing at least one or two.
For Tunis, the answer is to keep the bullets from hitting their intended targets. In 1984, after studying mechanical engineering at the University of Delaware, he started his career at DuPont (DD), which had spent most of the century making plastic products with polyethylene, the synthetic resin useful because it's tough and light. A few years after Tunis started at DuPont, Royal DSM, a Dutch company, developed Dyneema, a polyethylene fiber that's extremely strong—pull as hard as you can with your fingers, and you can't break a strand thinner than a piece of linguini. By weaving and then smashing enough of those fibers together, you can create lightweight armor that's virtually impenetrable. Tunis's company, Hardwire, created a machine called Thor, a 30-foot-tall pressurizer that can exert 25 million pounds of force; Tunis says it's the largest in the world.
According to USAspending.gov, a site managed by the federal government, the U.S. military has paid Hardwire almost $35 million for its shields since 2009—and countless more before that, when Hardwire earned most of its revenue by subcontracting with larger companies and with the Pentagon's research and development unit, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. (Privately held, Hardwire won't release financial information.)
After Sandy Hook, Tunis thought more about how his armor could work in schools—and, of course, how to find new business. The military paid Hardwire almost $22 million for its vehicle armor in 2010; last year that figure was only $941,300, according to USAspending.gov. Thor is so efficient that Tunis needed to employ only 50 or so people at the height of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Today, 34 work at Hardwire, which has shifted its focus to selling its battle-ready whiteboards to schools. The boards weigh just four pounds but can stop multiple rounds from virtually any handgun or shotgun.
The performance of the armor is extraordinary, but you can predict the first problem: cost. Staples (SPLS) sells 24-by-18-in. whiteboards for $55.19; Hardwire's 18-by-20-in. ones are $399. The 10.6-lb. whiteboards that can stop semiautomatic bullets from, say, an AR-15—the rifle used in the Aurora (Colo.) cinema shooting—cost $999. Hardwire says schools that buy its products get free training for teachers and students in how to deploy their armor most effectively. Tunis compares the whiteboards to the fire extinguishers required in every classroom—which, as he points out, also require training for every teacher. “So this is the same mentality,” he says. “We take people to go from scared victims, to understand that they are going to be put in the position [in which] they have to become the first responder because trouble came and found them?…?and there was no way out. We can't provide an instant way out, but we can empower people.”
Comer, the Valdez police chief, first reached out to Tunis in May 2013, when a loaded handgun was found in one of the bathrooms at Valdez's Gilson Middle School. Officer Aaron Baczuk happened to be at the school, which was put on lockdown immediately along with the elementary and high schools. No shot was fired. The police identified the boy who brought the gun to school, but didn't release his name. He was sentenced to juvenile probation.
In the days after the incident, Comer searched the Web and found Hardwire. Valdez subsequently bought Hardwire boards for all elementary and secondary school teachers in the city, as well as all administrators, some of whom have the model that can absorb semiautomatic rifle fire. Comer told me he was so impressed by the boards' performance on the police department's gun range that he urged the city to spend the money ($30,000 is not a small sum for a town of 4,000).
In August, I flew to Valdez to see what the city was getting. In preparation for the school year, Hardwire was training teachers, administrators, and even kitchen staff in how to use the armor. At training sessions at the elementary, middle, and high schools, Lieutenant Bart Hinkle and Officer Baczuk repeated, ad nauseam, the phrase, “There are no rules anymore.” Run if you can; fight if you can; hide if you find a good spot; or sit under your desk in lockdown mode and die. “These are active killers, folks,” Hinkle told a group of teachers at Gilson. “We don't care if you suffocate that guy to death.”
One expert marksman in Valdez shot 10 rounds from two different handguns into one of the whiteboards. He also fired three buckshot rounds from a 12-gauge shotgun. Even though he was only 10 yards away and some bullets were shot into the same spot, no round got through.
Teachers who saw the demonstrations—whiteboards peppered with bullet holes on which you could still, sort of, make out the algebra equation—came away impressed. There were also some notes of skepticism: They know that some kids, especially the little ones, may be paralyzed by fear. After one presentation at Hutchens Elementary, I approached a teacher who seemed uneasy with the concept.
“I like a couple things about [the whiteboards],” said Sheri Beck, who has taught in elementary and high school classrooms for 20 years. “I like the idea that we have a tool now. And I really like that our police department was so forward-thinking in admitting this could happen here.” She also likes that she can use the whiteboard to do multiplication and spelling lessons for groups of students.
But Beck acknowledged that her whiteboard wouldn't protect her from getting shot in the leg, keeping her from guiding kids to safety. She added that she's told her students that any of them can grab the board if she's incapacitated. It might save just that one student—but even one may justify the expense. On the day I met her, Beck was carrying a box of student clipboards from Staples, which could stop little more than a spitball. Valdez hasn't bought the Hardwire clipboards, but when I suggested it, she sighed. “If somebody's crazy, they're going to kill. But maybe this one whiteboard gives Lieutenant Hinkle one more minute to get here.”
Finding a balance between the new types of protection and the wish for schools to feel open and welcome may never be fully resolved. At Valdez High—as well as the new $30 million Gilson Middle School and the older Hutchens Elementary—most classrooms have either a piece of glass on the door or a wide panel of glass next to the door. Hardwire sells, for $2,299, “peel-n-stick” door protectors; they can cover the interior windows, too. This has the effect of turning classrooms into citadels. Yet in the absence of better mental health care for troubled kids and tighter control of guns, schools will remain targets. Putting a bulletproof shield in every classroom will take some getting used to, but can you imagine a classroom without a fire extinguisher?
Back in Maryland, Tunis says his hope is that teachers trained and equipped to use his armor will feel enabled to charge at a shooter when he comes into a classroom. “You're going to lose some,” he acknowledges. “But right now you have some teachers running at these guys completely bare. [And] adding more bullets to this equation is probably not the best statistical answer. A bullet is going to hurt someone—from friendly fire or bad-guy fire, it doesn't matter. The beauty of armor is that it subtracts bullets.”
To see how bulletproof whiteboards are made, go to businessweek.com/14/Hardwire
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-10-02/hardwires-armored-whiteboards-defend-against-school-shootings
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Pennsylvania
Jailed Cop Killer Invited To Speak At Goddard College, Prison Chief Is Outraged
FRACKVILLE, Pa. (AP) -- A man serving life in prison for the killing of a Philadelphia police officer in 1981 has been selected as a commencement speaker at his Vermont alma mater.
Goddard College, a liberal arts college in Plainfield with 600 students, says on its website that Mumia Abu-Jamal's recorded remarks will be played Sunday at a commencement, along with a video about him.
Bob Kenny, the school's interim president, is quoted on the website as saying the graduates' selection of Abu-Jamal reflects "their freedom to engage and think radically and critically in a world that often sets up barriers to do just that."
Abu-Jamal was originally sentenced to death for killing Officer Daniel Faulkner on Dec. 9, 1981, but he was resentenced to life in 2012. He graduated from Goddard in 1996.
His claims that he's been victimized by a racist justice system have attracted international support, and a radio show, documentaries and books have helped publicize his case. Abu-Jamal is a former Black Panther; the officer was white.
The Vermont Troopers' Association said Tuesday that including Abu-Jamal in the commencement shows "an absolute disregard" for Faulkner's family.
"While our nation is searching for solutions to gun violence in our schools and communities, we are outraged that Goddard College is hosting a man who shot and killed a police officer," the group in a written statement.
Pennsylvania Corrections Secretary John Wetzel said he's "disdainful" of Goddard's decision to choose Abu-Jamal, who is housed at the Mahanoy state prison in Frackville.
"Police officers put their lives on the line every day to protect society and now we have a college allowing an individual convicted of murdering a police officer to share his opinions with impressionable students. This fact is very troubling," he said.
"Inmates do have a constitutional right to access telephones," Wetzel said. "While we do not support or endorse this specific type of activity, we cannot prohibit it from happening."
Goddard holds 20 commencement ceremonies every year, so students in each degree program can individualize their graduations and choose their speaker. Students who are receiving bachelor of arts or fine arts degrees Sunday chose Abu-Jamal, who received a bachelor's degree from Goddard in 1996.
Twenty of the 23 students who are receiving arts degrees are expected to attend the ceremony.
Goddard students design their own curriculums with faculty advisers and do not take tests or receive grades, said college spokesman Dustin Byerly.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/01/cop-killer-goddard-college_n_5912598.html
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Montana
‘See Something, Say Something' and Community Policing
by John Whitehead
“There were relatively few secret police, and most were just processing the information coming in. I had found a shocking fact. It wasn't the secret police who were doing this wide-scale surveillance and hiding on every street corner. It was the ordinary German people who were informing on their neighbors.”—Professor Robert Gellately
If you see something suspicious, says the Department of Homeland Security, say something about it to the police, call it in to a government hotline, or report it using a convenient app on your smart phone.
(If you're a whistleblower wanting to snitch on government wrongdoing, however, forget about it—the government doesn't take kindly to having its dirty deeds publicized and, God forbid, being made to account for them.)
For more than a decade now, the DHS has plastered its “See Something, Say Something” campaign on the walls of metro stations, on billboards, on coffee cup sleeves, at the Super Bowl, even on television monitors in the Statue of Liberty. Now colleges, universities and even football teams and sporting arenas are lining up for grants to participate in the program.
This is what is commonly referred to as community policing. Yet while community policing and federal programs such as “See Something, Say Something” are sold to the public as patriotic attempts to be on guard against those who would harm us, they are little more than totalitarian tactics dressed up and repackaged for a more modern audience as well-intentioned appeals to law and order and security.
The police state could not ask for a better citizenry than one that carries out its own policing.
After all, the police can't be everywhere. So how do you police a nation when your population outnumbers your army of soldiers? How do you carry out surveillance on a nation when there aren't enough cameras, let alone viewers, to monitor every square inch of the country 24/7? How do you not only track but analyze the transactions, interactions and movements of every person within the United States?
The answer is simpler than it seems: You persuade the citizenry to be your eyes and ears. You hype them up on color-coded “Terror alerts,” keep them in the dark about the distinctions between actual threats and staged “training” drills so that all crises seem real, desensitize them to the sight of militarized police walking their streets, acclimatize them to being surveilled “for their own good,” and then indoctrinate them into thinking that they are the only ones who can save the nation from another 9/11.
As historian Robert Gellately points out, a Nazi order requires at least some willing collaborators to succeed. In other words, this is how you turn a people into extensions of the omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent police state, and in the process turn a citizenry against each other.
It's a brilliant ploy, with the added bonus that while the citizenry remains focused on and distrustful of each other and shadowy forces from outside the country, they're incapable of focusing on more definable threats that fall closer to home—namely, the government and its cabal of Constitution-destroying agencies and corporate partners.
“Community-Oriented Policing” is a Department of Justice program designed to foster partnerships between police agencies and members of the community. Unfortunately, these programs are not making America any safer. Instead, they're turning us into a legalistic, intolerant, squealing, bystander nation content to report a so-called violation to the cops and then turn a blind eye to the ensuing tragedies.
Apart from the sheer idiocy of arresting people for such harmless “crimes” as raising pet chickens, letting their kids walk to the park alone, peeling the bark off a tree, holding prayer meetings in their backyard and living off the grid, there's also the unfortunate fact that once the police are called in, with their ramped up protocols, battlefield mindset, militarized weapons, uniforms and equipment, and war zone tactics, it's a process that near impossible to turn back and one that too often ends in tragedy for all those involved.
Nevertheless, in much the same way the old African proverb “it takes a village to raise a child” was used to make the case for an all-encompassing government program of social welfare, the DHS and the DOJ are attempting to make the case that it takes a nation to catch a terrorist.
To this end, the Justice Department identifies five distinct “partners” in the community policing scheme: law enforcement and other government agencies, community members and groups, nonprofits, churches and service providers, private businesses and the media.
Together, these groups are supposed to “identify” community concerns, “engage” the community in achieving specific goals, serve as “powerful” partners with the government, and add their “considerable resources” to the government's already massive arsenal of technology and intelligence. The mainstream media's role, long recognized as being a mouthpiece for the government, is formally recognized as “publicizing” services from government or community agencies or new laws or codes that will be enforced, as well as shaping public perceptions of the police, crime problems, and fear of crime.
Amazingly, the Justice Department guidelines sound as if they were taken from a Nazi guide on how to rule a nation. “Germans not only watched out for ‘crimes' and other deviations” of fellow German citizens, Gellately writes, “but they watched each other.”
Should you find yourself suddenly unnerved at the prospect of being spied on by your neighbors, your actions scrutinized, your statements dissected, and your motives second-guessed, not to worry: as I point out in my book A Government of Wolves, this is par for the course in the American police state.
http://www.belgrade-news.com/opinion/columnists/john_w_whitehead/article_3fd28e84-48ca-11e4-b8bf-9f7688b73e10.html
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Washington
Secret Service head in hot seat after White House breach details revealed
by Fox News
Secret Service Director Julia Pierson will face questions about how an armed intruder jumped the White House fence and made it as far as the East Room when she testifies before a House committee on Tuesday.
Sources confirmed to Fox News on Monday that 42-year-old Omar Gonzalez overpowered a Secret Service officer in the Sept. 19 incident -- this led to a struggle and "wrestling" inside the executive mansion as he darted through. Gonzalez was eventually tackled by a counter-assault agent in the East Room after he reached the doorway to the Green Room, a parlor overlooking the South Lawn.
The revelation that the intruder made it much farther than originally known came on the eve of a scheduled House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing that will address the breach, as well as lawmakers' "concerns" about the Secret Service's security protocols.
A series of what one source called "catastrophic" security failures apparently allowed the intruder to get deep into the White House.
The Secret Service did not follow basic protocols during the incident to protect the White House, the president and the first family and the agency still does not know why, a source intimately familiar with details of the investigation told Fox News.
For example, the Secret Service didn't lock down certain areas of the property and did not elevate the threat level at the White House so that other uniformed officers and agents would know what was happening, which is a standard response.
“This was a catastrophic failure when the President was not there. What if the president was there?” the source, a longtime Secret Service insider, added. "It turns out that basic functions in place to avoid this were never initiated."
Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, who chairs a House subcommittee on national security oversight, also told CNN that whistleblowers had informed his panel of the breach.
Additionally, an alarm box near the front entrance of the White House that is designed to alert guards to an intruder had been muted at what officers believed was a request of the usher's office, an official told The Washington Post.
An officer posted inside the front door also appeared to be delayed in learning that Gonzalez was about to burst through, according to the Post. Officers are trained to immediately lock the front door once an intruder is spotted on the grounds.
A Secret Service Uniformed Division officer then “misreported” how far the intruder got into the White House to management in order to downplay the impact of the initial failure.
The officer in question told management that the intruder “never got through the vestibule” of the North Portico, which turned out to be false, a source said.
Secret Service spokeswoman Nicole Mainor told Fox News that the agency would not comment on the revelations, citing the ongoing investigation.
The Secret Service has been having high-level meetings to address the breach, the latest in a series of embarrassing scandals for the agency since a 2012 prostitution scandal erupted during a presidential visit to Colombia.
The Post reported over the weekend that the Secret Service did not immediately respond to shots fired at the White House in 2011, amid what the agency describes as uncertainty about where the shots originated. Four days later, it was discovered that at least one of the shots broke the glass of a window on the third level of the mansion, the Secret Service said.
At the time of the 2011 breach, the president and first lady Michelle Obama were away, but their daughters were in Washington — one home and the other due to return that night.
Oscar R. Ortega-Hernandez of Idaho has been sentenced to 25 years in prison for the 2011 incident.
"The president and the first lady, like all parents, are concerned about the safety of their children, but the president and first lady also have confidence in the men and women of the Secret Service to do a very important job, which is to protect the first family, to protect the White House, but also protect the ability of tourists and members of the public to conduct their business or even tour the White House," White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Monday.
After the most recent breach, Pierson ordered a review of the incident and possible changes to security measures at and around the White House. She briefed the president on Thursday.
"The president is interested in the review that they are conducting, and I would anticipate that he'll review whatever it is they — whatever reforms and recommendations they settle upon," Earnest said of the Secret Service's internal review.
Secret Service officers who spotted Gonzalez scaling the fence quickly assessed that he didn't have any weapons in his hands and wasn't wearing clothing that could conceal substantial quantities of explosives, a primary reason agents did not fire their weapons, according to a U.S. official briefed on the investigation.
Gonzalez was on the Secret Service radar as early as July when state troopers arrested him during a traffic stop in southwest Virginia. State troopers there said Gonzalez had an illegal sawed-off shotgun and a map of Washington tucked inside a Bible with a circle around the White House, other monuments and campgrounds. The troopers seized a stash of other weapons and ammunition found during a search of Gonzalez's car after his arrest.
The Secret Service interviewed Gonzalez in July, but had nothing with which to hold him. Gonzalez was released on bail. Then, on Aug. 25, Gonzalez was stopped and questioned again while he was walking along the south fence of the White House. He had a hatchet, but no firearms. His car was searched, but he was not arrested.
"There's a misperception out there that we have some broad detention powers," Ed Donovan, a Secret Service spokesman, said. The Secret Service, like other law enforcement agencies, must have evidence of criminal behavior in order to file charges against someone. "Just because we have a concern about someone doesn't mean we can interview or arrest them or put them in a mental health facility," Donovan said.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/09/30/white-house-intruder-made-it-to-east-room-officials-say/
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Washington
AG Holder Announces $124 Million Community Police Hiring Grant
by D.L. Chandler
Attorney General Eric Holder (pictured) announced on Monday a $124 million hiring grant in the latest of the Justice Department's goal to improve the quality of police forces nationwide. Alongside Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) Director Ron Davis, the pair enacted the grant in support of strengthening community policing.
The grant will fund around 950 officers at 215 law enforcement agencies across the nation. The grant money is especially focused on three key areas: increasing community policing; bolstering crime reduction; and increasing public safety.
Both Holder and Davis issued statements regarding the grant, detailing the finer points and emphasizing its grand goal of supporting officers already in place in these communities as well as new hires by way of securing salary and crime reduction efforts.
From Attorney General Holder:
“These targeted investments will help to address acute needs – such as high rates of violent crime – funding 75 percent of the salary and benefits of every newly-hired or re-hired officer for three full years,” said Attorney General Holder. “The impact of this critical support will extend far beyond the creation and preservation of law enforcement jobs. It will strengthen relationships between these officers and the communities they serve, improve public safety and keep law enforcement officers on the beat.”
From Director Davis:
“The COPS Office is pleased to assist local law enforcement agencies throughout the country in addressing their most critical public safety issues,” said Director Davis. “Funding from this year's program will allow many cities and counties to focus newly sworn personnel on issues related to violent crime, property crime and school safety.”
Referred to as the COPS Hiring Program, the grants will be awarded to state, local, and also tribal law enforcement agencies to hire or rehire from within the communities they serve. As explained by Holder, up to 75 percent of the entry-level salaries and basic benefits of full-time officers will be funded over a period of 36 months. The local agencies must match a minimum of 25 percent local funds with the federal maximum of funding capped at $125,000 per officer.
Grant award recipients for the 2014 portion of the program were selected for plans they submitted regarding strategies, exhibiting a financial need, and the rates of violent crimes in their communities.
COPS has provided funds to more than 125,000 officers serving 13,000 national agencies to date. It has also funded several organizations over the years with more than 700,000 people receiving training via its programs. Those individuals include government leaders, community organizers, and police officials among others. The COPS program is in its 20th year, providing more than $14 billion in hiring efforts among national agencies.
http://newsone.com/3057422/ag-holder-announces-124-million-community-police-hiring-grant/
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Lousianna
La. Deputy Sheriff Shot, Killed By Fellow Deputies During Domestic Violence Dispute
by NewsOne Staff
Lt. Nolan Anderson, 50, a 25-year veteran of the St. John the Baptist Parish Sheriff's department, was on-duty and in uniform when he was shot and killed by fellow deputies during a domestic violence dispute with his wife, reports WGNO.com .
“No other deputy shot, no other deputy injured,” Louisiana State Trooper Melissa Matey said.
Deputies are investigating why Anderson was at his daughter's residence in Laplace, Louisiana at 2:00 p.m. on Wednesday when he radioed for deputies to come to the home.
When they arrived, the situation reportedly escalated quickly and Anderson allegedly refused to drop his weapon on command, forcing his fellow deputies to fatally wound him to protect themselves and his wife, who was later taken to the hospital with wounds consistent with pistol whipping.
“He was firing into the air, the weapon was pointed at deputies and they had to take lethal action in order to protect them and also to protect Lt. Anderson's wife,” Matey said.
St. John Parish Sheriff Mike Tregre described Anderson as a “good officer” who made a bad decision.
“Very good officer. Life if full of decisions. He made a decision today; we had to make a decision to use lethal force. Wish we could change it. We can't. Hopefully the sun will come up tomorrow,” Tregre said.
“I have experienced tragedy in St. John Parish,” Tregre said during a news conference. “But to see my officers have to use lethal force against one of my very own? I never thought I'd see that day.”
Grief counselors have been provided for deputies in the department.
http://newsone.com/3056477/sheriff-deputy-killed-nolan-anderson/
